History Podcasts
The History Hit network gives you access to a growing range of podcasts presented by and featuring historians at the forefront of research and debate.
Scroll down to listen to the most recent episodes from our network.
Dan Snow’s History Hit explores the deep history behind today’s headlines – giving you the context to understand what is going on today. Everything has a history, every challenge made easier by understanding its nature, its genesis. In a world of fast opinions, we put historians into the debate, women and men who bring real knowledge built over careers spent researching.
The Ancients, hosted by historian Tristan Hughes, is dedicated to discussing our distant past. Historians and archaeologists join Tristan to discuss specific themes from antiquity, from Neolithic Britain to the Fall of Rome.
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb presents Not Just the Tudors. Together with expert interviewees, she covers the sweeping range of the early modern period: everything from the Aztecs to witches, Velázquez to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower.
Gone Medieval is hosted by historians Matt Lewis and Eleanor Janega, who shine a light on one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood periods of history: the Middle Ages. In each episode, experts lead listeners beneath the skin of captivating stories to uncover new insights.
In Betwixt the Sheets join historian, Kate Lister as she unashamedly roots around the topics which seem to have been skipped in history class. Everything from landmark LGBTQ+ court cases, to political scandal, to downright bizarre medieval cures for impotence.
In American History Hit, join Don Wildman twice a week for your hit of American history, as he explores the past to help us understand the United States of today. We’ll hear how codebreakers uncovered secret Japanese plans for the Battle of Midway, visit Chief Powhatan as he prepares for war with the British, see Walt Disney accuse his former colleagues of being communists, and uncover the dark history that lies beneath Central Park.
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal joined History Hit’s award-winning podcast network in October 2023, hosted by actor, writer and historian Anthony Delaney and writer, broadcaster, historian Maddy Pelling. Together, the duo unpick history’s spookiest, strangest and most sinister stories – from the disappearance of HMS Terror to the origins of Halloween.
War historian and broadcaster James Rogers hosts our Warfare podcast, which opens up fascinating new perspectives on how conflict has shaped and changed our world. James teams up with fellow historians, veterans, and experts to reveal astonishing new histories of inspirational leadership, breakthrough technologies, and era defining battles.
Patented, hosted by Dallas Campbell, dives into stories of flukey discoveries, erased individuals and murky marketing ploys with the help of experts, scientists and historians.
Click on any of the listings below to listen to the most recent episodes from our network.
All Podcasts
42:27
History of Geishas
3 May 2024What does it mean to be a geisha? How does someone become one? And how do they differ from sex workers?
The geisha world is famously very...
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33:28
Teddy Roosevelt: The Making of the Rough Rider President
2 May 2024Theodore Roosevelt is arguably the most masculine president in American history. So how was he influenced by the women around him? And how was he...
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46:51
The Roman Auxiliary
2 May 2024Auxiliaries were some of the most important troops in the all-conquering Roman Army. Unlike legionaries, their more heavily-armoured and widely...
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43:42
Origins of the Normans
1 May 2024Because of William the Conqueror’s victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans have remained a familiar and important name in British...
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39:01
Execution of Charles I
1 May 2024In 1649, Charles I had his head chopped off for treason. It's a unique, divisive moment in English history. Was Charles a tyrant or a martyr? Was...
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43:21
From Tudor to Stuart: Regime Change
1 May 2024In 1603, Queen Elizabeth I died and King James VI of Scotland, became King James I of England. Elizabeth was a hard act to follow for the...
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27:32
The Battle of Okinawa
30 April 2024Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicide.
On 1 April 1945, as the Second World War in Europe was reaching its end, one of...
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44:59
Drunk Victorians: Moral Panic & Meat Wine
30 April 2024Glass of meat wine, anyone? That's right, the Victorians loved a glass of meaty wine.
They loved drinking so much that it became a moral...
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29:44
The Original Kamikaze: The Mongol Invasions of Japan
29 April 2024At the height of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan set his sights on the island of Japan. He launched two enormous invasions of that nation in 1274...
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44:21
Diving Tudor Shipwrecks
29 April 2024In the 16th and 17th centuries, sailing was a tool of warfare and empire, of conquest and discovery, of trade and travel. But vessels were...
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40:32
1811 Ratcliffe Highway Murders: Birth of True Crime
29 April 2024Horror struck the East End of London twice in December 1811. Two brutal sets of murders within a few days of each other. It became ground zero for...
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30:21
The Kamikaze Hunters
28 April 2024Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicide.
In 1945, after lengthy delays, the Royal Navy sent a powerful fleet into the...
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44:38
The Real Hamilton: Founding Father
28 April 2024Who really was Alexander Hamilton, and what do we actually know about his life?
A Founding Father, he fought in the Revolutionary War,...
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28:46
The Kamikaze Pilots
27 April 2024Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicide.
By October 1944, the Japanese were in real trouble. The Allies had made...
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42:58
The Beaker People
27 April 2024The Beaker People were a Bronze Age culture that revolutionised prehistoric Britain. They were responsible for introducing Bronze Age technology...
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41:26
The Witan: England's First Parliament?
26 April 2024Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, was a great king who united what was once a collection of petty Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into one vast...
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36:46
Elvis Presley's Sex Life
26 April 2024Elvis Presley embraced sexuality from the start. Rock n roll was not tame music, and neither were his early performances.
So much so that he...
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34:16
President Rutherford B. Hayes: The First Great Depression
25 April 2024Emerging victorious from an electoral quagmire in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes became the 19th President of the United States.
Professor Mark...
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39:40
The Library of Alexandria
25 April 2024The Library of Alexandria was one of the most important and most celebrated buildings of the ancient Mediterranean. It was a great hub of learning...
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35:31
The Birth of Science in 16th Century Europe
25 April 2024The traditional view of the birth of modern science places it firmly in the 17th century with such huge names as Bacon, Descartes, Newton, and...
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32:28
Cannibalism in Scotland: Legend of Sawney Bean
24 April 2024According to legend, Sawney Bean and Agnes "Black" Douglas raised a clan of cannibals in a remote Scottish cave. They killed and ate unlucky...
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